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Today in Keys History – April 1, 2023

Three people sit on a sofa and chair on a lawn with building and palm trees in the background.

1832 – It was reported that Cuban fishermen at Key West had caught a thief and hung him from their mast without judge or jury. Investigation showed it was instead an effigy of Judas Iscariot, displayed as part of a Catholic tradition.

1865 – The U.S. steamer Iuka brought a captured blockade runner to Key West. The prize, the schooner Comus, had been sailing from St. Marks to Havana with 32 bales of sea island cotton.

1896 – One of the largest supply missions for Cuban insurgents was quietly being organized at Key West. Large quantities of arms and munitions were being carried out of the island city on various schooners and taken to Biscayne Bay for transfer to a larger, Cuba-bound vessel.

1898 – The U.S. government installed a telegraph cable between Key West and the Dry Tortugas.

1926 – Prince Yoganananda of Calcutta, India, accompanied by two women, was staying at the La Concha Hotel in Key West.

1937 – Monroe County Commissioners Wm. R. Porter and Norberg Thompson left for Miami for a meeting of the Everglades National Park Association. The proposed park boundaries included all of Key Largo, and the commissioners were adamantly opposed to any of the occupied Florida Keys being converted to park land.

1950 – Bess and Margaret Truman, wife and daughter of President Harry Truman, joined him at the Little White House.

1951 – The skeleton of Lelanette Roberts was found on Saddlebunch Key. The 28-year-old Key West woman had been missing since August 7, 1949.

1954 – The State Hotel Commission gave notice to the Island City House at 411 William Street that their license had been revoked and the building must be vacated within one week. The building was found to below acceptable standards in safety and sanitation.

Information compiled by Tom Hambright, Historian Emeritus, and Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Image: President and Mrs. Truman and daughter Margaret sitting on the lawn of the Little White House circa 1950. From the Jeff Brodhead Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

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